Areas of Environmental Action:

Forest, Fresh Water, Urban Environment

Summary of Achievements:

Mrs. Mabudafhasi Rejoice Thizwilondi is Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism of the Republic of South Africa.

Starting her professional career in 1962 as a Soweto school-teacher, Rejoice Mabudafhasi has always involved herself in self-help development projects. These efforts resulted in her detention under the State of Emergency between 1986 and 1989.

Since 1997 she has been the chairperson of the Board of Trustees of Mvula Trust, the largest water and sanitation NGO in the country, which was set up in late 1993 to give support to the Community Water Supply and Sanitation Programme within the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF).

Mrs. Rejoice Mabudafhasi co-chairs the Network of Women Ministers for the Environment with Lena Sommestad, Minister for the Environment, Sweden.